Monday, June 20, 2005

BEYOND ALL DOUBT -- ILLINOIS NEEDS DEATH PENALTY REFORM

If you ever wondered why Illinois needs a law -- like the one proposed by Tom Cross -- that would require that a jury conclude beyond all doubt that the defendant was guilty before applying the death penalty, look no further than the case of Kevin Fox:

Oct. 26, 2004: Kevin Fox is arrested after authorities say he makes a videotaped statement saying he accidentally killed her by hitting her in the head with a door, and in a panic dumped her in the creek after binding, gagging and sexually assaulting her body to make it look like a kidnapping.

Oct. 28, 2004: Will County State's Attorney Jeffrey Tomczak files criminal complaint charging Fox with first-degree murder and predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and announces he will seek death penalty against Fox.

Oct. 30, 2004: Kevin Fox releases his own statement proclaiming innocence and accusing police of coercing him into falsely admitting he killed Riley and then covered up the death.

Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow did not say his predecessor, Jeffrey Tomczak, rushed Kevin Fox's arrest just five days before the election in an unsuccessful attempt to keep his job.

And Glasgow never explicitly criticized Tomczak for not comparing Kevin Fox' DNA with evidence samples taken from his daughter's body.

But in his court motion and his press release, Glasgow spelled out his former political rival's timing and omissions.

When Kevin Fox was arrested in October, his attorney, Kathleen Zellner, called the timing "suspicious" because of the imminent election in which Tomczak was fighting for his political life against Glasgow.

Tomczak called the suggestion that Fox's arrest was designed more to help his campaign than solve the murder "baseless."

Tomczak refused to comment at the time on whether he had tested Kevin Fox's DNA against the samples taken from his daughter five months earlier. He did say at the time that he was seeking the death penalty for Kevin Fox -- as Glasgow noted Friday.ST

How many different times and in how many different ways must the criminal justice system fail before we make some common sense reforms to the Illinois death penalty.